A knock on the door made Pettigrove jump. She looked to Q who said, “Get rid of them.” Nodding, she got up, walked down the hallway and around the corner to the front door. On the side of the wall she could see through the video intercom it was a tall, dark-haired maid. She was standing next to a trolley stacked with towels, toiletries and other assorted cleaning products.

Pettigrove pushed the button on the wall mounted device, and she said loud enough for everyone to hear, “We don’t need anything.”

“Maid service,” Kylee trilled happily into the camera. A wide bright smile flashing as she smoothed out the black and white uniform Jo had stolen from the utility room.

“It’s a bit late for a turndown service isn’t it?” Pettigrove checked her watch. “It’s after six.”

Fuck, Kylee said to herself, she hadn’t thought of that. Come on brain, now’s your time. A split-second pause before she said, “Ordinarily, yes, ma’am. However, an alarm has been triggered in your bathroom. I’ve been sent up to check it out. I will be super quick. You will never even know I’m here. Discretion is key at the Ritz Carlton,” Kylee said with sweetness and light as she inwardly high-fived herself for her quick thinking. “You wouldn’t want me to get fired, would you?” Throwing the last part into strike at a fellow female’s need to keep employed.

Pettigrove looked back at the hallway, then to the left where the bathroom is located. “Just the bathroom?” she asked quietly.

“Absolutely ma’am, just the bathroom.”

Pettigrove clicked the lock and opened the door, placing her finger to her lips. “My husband is working extremely hard. He’s a high-powered businessman who wouldn’t appreciate being interrupted. There’s the bathroom, make it quick and stay out of sight. Understand?” Pettigrove whispered.

Kylee nodded and went to the left. Luckily for her, the woman didn’t follow her but stayed waiting at the door for her to exit. Fuck, Kylee said to herself. Fuck. Fuck, as she went through one of the main bedrooms and into the bathroom.

Kylee stood in the center of a bathroom just like theirs which was full of marble and gold fixtures. This hotel really went the whole hog on the details, Kylee thought to herself, before remembering she was in the devil’s nest and needed to find out the numbers and get the fuck out of Dodge. She snuck back out to the bedroom and stood by the door that looked like it led to the central living area. She could hear male voices talking, assuming that’s where she needed to go. Kylee pressed her back against the wall and slid up the walkway. The voices began to get louder as she started to hear words like dragon and battles being thrown around. She lowered to her hands and knees as the wall ended, and poked her head barely around the corner. Kylee’s eyes went wide as she saw Taryn and Attor sitting propped against the wall, flanked by two huge men, who were both standing there, arms linked across their chests as they stood guard.

“Pssst,” Kylee barely made a sound as she stared intently, sending subliminal messages to her friend. Look at me bitch. Fucking look at me. Fuck Taryn, look at me.

Taryn’s head turned and locked eyes with Kylee’s, stopping any reaction, as Kylee’s hand went up to her lips. Begging for silence, she frowned and told her to calm down. The tiniest of nods showed Kylee, Taryn understood. All right, Kylee, she said to herself. Let’s bring on the charades. Kylee pointed to her eyelashes and fluttered them. Blinking once, she mouthed ‘yes,’ blinking twice she mouthed the word, ‘no.’ Tilting her head in a silent question, she saw Taryn blink once for yes. Okay, we have confirmed conversation. Eat your fucking heart out James-fucking-Bond, Kylee laughed to herself.

Kylee counted on her fingers in conjunction with her blinks for counting, as she lifted her hands in a question of how many? She pointed to her crotch, and made a wanking gesture for the word, ‘men.’ She waited as Taryn looked around the room, then causally blinked four times. Fuck. Four men, okay. Waiting for Taryn to look back, she used the same gesture of how many? By lifting her hands then grabbing her own boobs as a word for, ‘women.’ Again, she waited for Taryn to look around and blink three times.

Kylee waited for a final glance, gave her the thumbs up, and vanished back around the corner. She quickly made her way back to the front door where the woman was still waiting. “It must have been a faulty connection. I’ve changed the battery, ma’am.” Kylee curtseyed. “Won’t happen again, ma’am. Sorry for bothering you.” She smiled one last time and left the room. Understanding she was most likely still being watched, she grabbed the cart and walked back toward the elevator. Pushing the button as she picked up a notepad and started to write some fake crap on the paper, but it looked professional.

The door to the adjoining suite opened at the same time the elevator dinged, and instead of walking forward, she walked back into the room. Unless the woman was staring intently, she would assume she’d gone forward. With the click of the door, she exhaled heavily. Turning around to the faces of four very eager dragon men, and one woman, who was crying with tears of relief.

Jo lifted his hand in a high five. “You’re one bad-assed mo-fo. I like you.” Jo clapped her hand above the others.

Payton stepped in and wrapped her in a big hug. “Glad you’re back.”

“Me too,” Kylee said as she hugged her best friend. “Okay, there are four men and three women in there,” she said having released Payton and looked at V.

“Including?”

“In total,” Kylee nodded. “Taryn and Attor are wearing some jacket like thing, it’s wrapped around them, and they’re propped up against the far wall near the glass doors to the balcony. Either side of them stood two huge fuckers… I mean, like… huge.” Kylee laughed as she used her hands to gauge the width of their shoulders. “I don’t know where the others are, but the woman who answered the door seemed afraid of her husband.”

“Husband?” V asked.

“That’s what she said…” Kylee shrugged. “But when I was in the bedroom, it looked like only a female was staying in the room. There was no sign of anything male in the bedroom nor the bathroom.”

“Fuck, woman, did you just have a wander around while you were there?” Jo remarked with astonishment.

Kylee snorted as she looked at him. “It’s a girl thing, you wouldn’t understand.”

V looked at Kylee. “I had my reservations about this, but you’ve quite possibly saved the lives of myself and my brothers this very night. And for that, you’ll always have my loyalty and appreciation.” V lowered his head in thanks. “Thank you, Kylee.”

She shrugged. “It was fun. I kinda liked being needed.”

V smiled. “All right boys.” He turned to talk to his brothers as they sat at the table, a rough hand-drawn map of the hotel suite Vern had got from the computer was spread out on the table. “Attor and Taryn are here…” He pointed to a spot near the doors. “Kylee? Is that correct?” She nodded, so he continued, placing two blue spots on the map. He grabbed a red pen and placed two red crosses either side of them. “The guards, Kylee spoke of…” The boys all murmured their understanding.

“Let’s assume the others are in this area.” V swept a circle around the living room on the map. “If it’s similar to this suite, then the sofa is right there, and quite possibly where the others are sitting.”

“Are you thinking an attack from the balcony?” Ladon asked.

“It would be the obvious. Yes. The front door is too narrow and with the hallways would make it difficult to get the upper hand. I think the balcony is the only way, even if that’s where they would expect it to come from.”

“Why not do both?” Kylee said from the sofa.

“It’s impossible. We would need a key,” V dismissed her question

“Only the concierge has a master key. Even the cleaning staff don’t have keys. Each room is opened by the main computer at the time of check out,” Vern added as an explanation. He liked that Kylee wanted to help. She was smart, very smart.

“I guess you’re right,” she said with a grin. “Unless…”

Vern tilted his head. “Unless?”

“Unless some awesome fucking chick, had made a split-second decision to slide a piece of electrical tape she found in the cleaning cart across the door latch on her way out. Leaving the door…” She let her words linger as they begun to sink in.

“Closed, but not… locked?” Vern asked with a laugh of admiration. “I’m joining Jo, you’re a bad-assed mo-fo, Kylee.” He walked over and slapped her waiting hand in the air.

Turning back to V, Wyvern exclaimed, “Do you get it? She taped the lockdown, it looks locked for all aesthetic purposes, but will open by simply pushing it.”

V shook his head in astonishment. “Are you sure you’re not part dragon? That’s brilliant thinking.”

“Nope, no dragon in me. However, I would love to get a big bit of dragon in me, if you get my drift.” Laughing as Payton slapped her arm playfully. “What?” she asked, and she laughed again.

V and his brothers chuckled as they huddled back over the map and planned the double entrance attack. Thanks to Kylee, they could take a bite at both ends.

 

 

Pettigrove walked back into the room, taking a seat back beside Cinders.

Q watched her with the wariness. “That was an unusually long time to tell someone to fuck off.”

“Right?” Pettigrove rolled her eyes. “The maid service was unrelenting, and then I needed some coffee.” She scoffed. “The coffee machine took forever… couldn’t find the sugar… typical hotel issues. Open every damn door before you find the one you want.” Taking a sip as she inhaled the intoxicating aroma of a fresh brew. Pettigrove looked over at Cinders. “I would have brought you one back, but…” she looked at her confined arms and shrugged, “… I couldn’t find any straws.”

Q twitched. “At night?”

“Huh?” she said looking up. “What’s at night?”

A second twitch caused Q’s back to straighten “The maid service. Why would they have come at night?”

“That’s what I said, but it was just a faulty alarm or something. It’s all fixed now. No more hassles,” she said, pleased she hadn’t disturbed him.

“When exactly was that?”

“What?”

“The fucking maid, woman!” he bellowed so loudly she jumped and splashed coffee on her shirt. “How long ago did the maid come through here?”

Pettigrove clearly startled, she placed her coffee down and looked at her watch, it read six- forty. “About half an hour ago.” She lifted her shoulders meekly.

“Fuck,” Q growled.

“Such language in front of ladies, didn’t your mother teach you manners?”

Q’s head flicked up to see the oldest of the dragon brothers standing at the hallway’s entrance. His chest puffed up to twice its normal width, a smothering of blue scales decorated his body as he had released his beast enough to be threatening.

“Volos, I presume?” Q said as he slowly walked back closer to his captive guests. V nodded, standing still, as he took in all the information about his surroundings his brain would allow. Q continued, “I make a point of always knowing who my enemies are.”

“Yeah?” V said. “That’s funny, I don’t know who the fuck you are.” He purposely dismissed the importance of this man. One thing every fighter knew, first one to get flustered, is the one who will lose the battle. If he could get Q hot under the collar, they might all get out of this alive. He took the few seconds of silence to cast an eye directly at Attor and Taryn, both confined, but appeared unhurt. V knew with that level of confinement that any shift would be impossible. To have a conversation dragon to dragon, he would need a partial shift, which wasn’t happening until he got freedom.

“The fuck you don’t.” Q lifted his chin defiantly. “You recognize me. I can see it in your eyes.” Q was calm as he stood next to Attor. “Maybe this might jog your memory.” Q turned to face the bound dragon sitting on the floor, he grabbed two handles of hair and unleashed his anger. Q lifted his knee with full force, arching his back as he drove his knee into Attor’s face. Flicking the dragon’s head back as an arc of blood flew up, splattering on the white wall above them. Attor’s nose was now sitting at an unnatural angle to his face. Blood streamed down his face as he spat out blood to clear his airways. Taryn screamed as the blood flicked over, hitting her face.

V didn’t react, he knew better than to react. It would take a lot more than a knee to the nose to kill a dragon. “The cleaning staff are going to love that.” V laughed, his eyes drawn to a bright crimson trail of blood on the wall.

“I don’t give a fuck about the staff,” Q bellowed. “Take one step forward, you scaled bastard and this fucker?” He reached down, grabbed a handful of hair and wrenched Attor’s head back hard enough to cause the dragon to grunt. “This scum sucking, ocean fucker’s a dead dragon.”

“Ocean fucker?” V laughed. “How does one… fuck an ocean? Exactly?”

Still holding Attor’s head back with his neck exposed. Q reached into his vest and pulled out a switchblade knife, as he pushed the button, the sound of a cold steel blade shooting forth coincided with the two men who’d been standing guard silently to step forward.

V straightened up and turned his head slightly as the missing fourth phoenix coughed from behind him. While V had been distracted with the banter, he’d slipped to the side out of view and managed to sneak up from behind.

“Looks like you’re cornered, Prince Volos,” the name rolled off Q’s tongue with an acidic feel of disgust. He flicked a look between the two dragon brothers he’d captured. “Wonder who is third in line to that precious throne. Today is their lucky day.”

“That would be me.” Ladon stepped from the black backdrop of the unguarded balcony into the room, followed by Wyvern and Jo. The three of them had flown in silently and waited, hidden in the shadows of the night, on the balcony, waiting for the right time to say hello. “But I’m not really the ‘throne’ kinda guy. So if you don’t mind…” Ladon smirked. “Can I just kill you now? I have an episode of Supernatural I need to get caught up on.”

Q let go of Attor’s head and lunged at Ladon with the knife. The whole scene erupted like a volcano. The phoenix who was standing behind V had brought forth his wings and seeing Q lunge, he stepped forward and wrapped his wings tightly around V. The wing strength a phoenix possessed was only half of his talents. The bird was fire by nature, and have been known to self-sacrifice in order to win a battle. Setting themselves alight, burning all that’s wrapped in their wings.

V screamed as the flames started to lick up his back. His arms trapped down by his sides, closing his eyes, V switched off the pain of his melting skin and reached back to grab anything he could. He found the testicles of the bird trying to kill him and reefed them as hard as he could. Shifting his hand into claws, he sunk them into the flesh and ripped them cleanly off the bird’s body. Instantly, the phoenix’s wings fell limp as he dropped to the ground, bleeding profusely from his groin. V threw the bird’s ball sack on the floor. He wasn’t one for touching other men’s genitalia, but fuck, he was trying to kill him.

Ladon took the lunge from Q, wrapping his fingers around his wrist and pulling him forward, away from Attor and Taryn. When he was clear, Jo who had kept his wings out, spread them wide and flew toward the men standing either side of his brother, barreling into them as the three of them went crashing through the wall behind them into the bedroom.

In that split second, Wyvern grabbed his knife from the sheath hidden on his leg, running behind Attor, he hooked the blade under its edge, and with one sharp movement, sliced it up the back.

Attor shook his shoulders forward, and the jacket fell free of his body. He looked at Vern. “Free Taryn, I want Q.” Wyvern nodded, he would want revenge too, if he was Attor. Vern moved over and sliced Taryn’s jacket to allow it to fall free on to the floor. Taryn rubbed her arms as the blood started to flow again.

“Come with me,” Wyvern said, directing her to the balcony.

Taryn nodded and stood on shaky legs, taking a few steps toward the black freedom of the night. Pausing mid-step, she looked up, the room was alive with punches being thrown, the cracking of bones being broken from blows meant to kill. It was like something from a movie. Creature battling creature, wings being used as weapons, hidden knives being driven deep in exposed chests. Taryn couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but a small movement caught her eye. There in the corner, on the opposite side of the room, was Cinders and Pettigrove huddled together in a ball.

“Vern,” she said and pointed to the two women. “I can’t leave them there.”

Wyvern sighed. “Attor said to get you out.”

“That’s nice, tell Attor to kiss my ass.” Not waiting for any reply, Taryn took the blade from Vern’s hand and went for the women.

“We need to get out of here,” Taryn said as she hooked the knife in Cinders’ jacket. She grunted as the saw moved back and forth. “Far out, Wyvern made it look easy,” she growled and sawed harder, back and forth, forward and back, against the black confining material.

Finally getting the last slice done, Cinders shook the jacket off and leaped up, she was frightened and wanted out as soon as possible. Taryn looked to her left, Volos and Jo were going blow for blow with the two guards that had carried them here. To her right, was Ladon and Attor circling Q, who had changed partially into his true form. The screech of his phoenix caused the glass of the balcony doors to shatter, and alarms to start whooping as the glass fell to the ground below.

Pettigrove’s panic rose with her need to get out. She had a simple locate and deliver business. This being caught in the middle of some battle spanning generations wasn’t part of her plan. She needed a distraction. Frantically looking around, she saw a dropped knife from the guard with a severe wound to his groin. She picked it up, looking around the room to see what she could do. Her eyes fell on Cinders. Could I? she asked herself. No, I’ve done enough to her already. Pettigrove dismissed her as she looked at the other woman. Taryn… wanted by the Vegas police. A common murderer. Yes. Yes, she said to herself, as she yelled, “You want this one? Oi’ dragons?” When she saw Attor look up, she drove the knife down deep into the center of Taryn’s back. Taryn’s back arched with pain as her mouth opened. A scream exiting her lungs that will haunt Attor for all his days as he watched his mate’s lifeless body crumple to the ground.